23andMe may offer costly premium DNA spit-test service

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Anne Wojcicki, who runs the personal genome testing company 23andme, and is the wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Nov. 1, 2013. In a crackdown on genetic testing offered directly to consumers, the Food and Drug Administration is demanding that 23andMe cease marketing its main DNA service until it receives clearance from the agency. (Peter DaSilva/The New York Times)

Although clicking on the notifications reportedly produced no results, a company spokesperson confirmed it was testing interest in such a service, but wasn’t planning an immediate roll-out. What results premium testing might produce, in terms of health and ancestry information, was unclear.

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Consumers wishing for insights into their ancestry and possible genetic health risks buy kits from 23andMe, and mail in a saliva sample that contains personal DNA.

The firm, which claims more than five million customers, announced in July with pharmaceuticals giant GSK that the two companies would work together on developing “innovative new medicines and potential cures,” using data from consenting 23andMe customers. The drugs firm was to provide a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe.

Earlier this year, 23andMe said it would recruit 100,000 overweight but healthy spit-kit customers for a large-scale study intended to uncover the genetic reasons why diet and exercise have different effects on different people.

A report earlier this year cast doubt on the accuracy of ancestry tests conducted by 23andMe and other DNA-testing companies. After a Gizmodo reporter received drastically different ancestry results from 23andMe, National Geographic, Ancestry.com and Gencove — with 23andMe’s results “the most confounding of all” — representatives from the testing firms told this news organization that the DNA analysis produced estimates rather than certain results.

Ethan Baron is a business reporter at The Mercury News, and a native of Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. Baron has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and photographer in newspapers and magazines for 25 years, covering business, politics, social issues, crime, the environment, outdoor sports, war and humanitarian crises.